Force India Barcelona test report 2011-03-09

Paul di Resta, Force India F1 Team

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Paul di Resta continued the Force India F1 Team's final pre-season test at the Circuit de Catalunya today. The 24-year-old Scot, who makes his F1 debut in Australia, conducted a simulation of a race weekend, beginning with qualifying runs in the morning and moving onto a full race simulation in the afternoon, complete with live pit stops. In total he ran 118 laps, with a best time of 1:24.334.

Paul di Resta
A reasonable day of running for us today and good reliability and clear weather meant we could get through all of our programme. In the morning I worked through the qualifying sims and in the afternoon it was onto the race runs. I've done pit stops before in practice last year but trying them in race conditions was a new experience. However they were similar in length to what I've experienced in the DTM over the past four years so I think I dealt with them OK. I'll have a break tomorrow while Adrian takes over the car to test some new aero upgrades we're running for the first time. I'll get my chance to run them on Friday and look forward to seeing how much time they will give.

Dominic Harlow, circuit engineering director
Paul was back in the car today, this time for a full day of running. In a productive outing he covered over 500km, running our standard Saturday practice and qualifying programmes before lunch and then moving to a full race simulation in the afternoon. We also had our full race crew here today to give them some live pit stop practice. Reliability was good again, which allowed us to cover our primary objectives for today. Paul takes a break tomorrow and Adrian will be in the car for the full day.

Testing data
Driver: Paul di Resta
Track: Circuit de Catalunya, Spain
Best lap time: 1:24.334
Laps completed: 118
Kilometres completed: 549km
Air temperature: High of 13 C
Track temperature: High of 15 C
Weather: Bright and sunny all day

-source: force india